School officials have offered a contract to build Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School to contractors that have worked on Island school projects and luxury buildings across the state.
WT Rich Company and Shawmut Design and Construction — contractors based in Massachusetts — worked together to bid to be the construction managers at risk for the new high school. The committee went with Shawmut and Rich over the other bidders, East Coast developers Consigli Construction and Gilbane Building Company.
Now it’s up to the contractors to decide whether to take on the project.
“Both firms were extremely qualified,” Tracey Overbeck-Stead, the PTSO (Parent-Teacher-Student Organization) chair and head of the contractor subcommittee, said in the selection meeting on Thursday. “We deliberated for quite a while. It was a tough decision, but we really felt that [WT Rich and Shawmut] were the best for this project.”
A subcommittee of the School Building Committee has worked since mid-September to decide which team to move forward with. WT Rich and Shawmut were the preferred choice and the lower bid, according to presenters at the meeting.
The high school addition and renovation, which is expected to cost about $334 million, according to the most recent estimates, is in the design phase of the overall project. This year is one of the most significant for planners and school officials, as many of the decisions regarding construction, schematics, and cost will go before voters in the spring. Once the contractor team is nailed down, floor plans, pricing, and more details on the look of the school won’t be far behind.
Tappe Architects will be designing the building. Although final renderings are not complete, the school will likely be two stories tall with a courtyard in the center. They will keep the Performing Arts Center and gym intact.
WT Rich Company has worked on many large school building projects, including, but not limited to the Tisbury School. Part of the group’s appeal was their previous work with locals through that process and that they employ Island residents.
“They have extensive experience with MSBA (Massachusetts School Building Association) projects,” Overbeck-Stead said. “We have a lot of experience with them, and they know our Island.”
The high school would be the first Island project for Shawmut Design and Construction, but not their first rodeo. They’ve completed dozens of K-12 school building projects. They were also the primary contractors for Harvard University, Fenway Park, and even nationwide Gucci and Louis Vuitton luxury goods stores.
The school building committee, after voting to move forward with WT Rich and Shawmut, will enter into negotiations with the contractor team. The committee said they are anticipating they’ll know more by December 18th, when updated cost estimates for the building project will be presented to the public.
Renovating the Building not building anew must take into account expert scientific assessment of mycotoxins permanently in the building envelope. I highly recommend suggest a meeting with mold experts so they are not wasting efforts and keeping materials that are unsafe and not remediatable. I do litigation in this area nationwide as a leading medical expert and can tell you we have never lost a case of mold exposure. You do not want this liability of Midas and teachers continuing to be exposed as they can measure this exposure at these labs: alletess 150.00 or less – mold antibodies, mycotoxins at mosaic 300.00, my mycolab mycotoxin antibodies with any doctor. – the decision makers and builders know not the mistakes they are likely making.
Literature abounds. Google theo theoharides Md watch a lecture on you tube. Mold is huge cause of illness. The island is in complete denial.
Really, $334M, that can’t be right! We just tore down our high school on the mainland, built a brand new one for 2,000 students, more than twice the size of the new Vineyard project for half the price!!
Really.
Will you really offer a lower bid?
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